Progress Energy shut off power to parts of Hillsborough Street Saturday morning due to the Hillsborough Street Improvement project, which impacted some businesses along the street.

The outage affected businesses occupying several blocks on Hillsborough Street, including Global Village Organic Coffee, GoPaks Bazaar and Jasmin Mediterranean Bistro.

Mike Ritchey, owner of Global Village, said Progress Energy notified the businesses of the outage in the early morning hours and told them it would be off until noon.

Ritchey says the outage had a serious economic effect on what should have been a “very heavy morning.”

“They thought they were doing us a favor,” Ritchey said.

He said the first day of move-in — with many parents looking for something to do — was not the ideal time to perform the work.

“This could have been done on a Sunday morning,” Ritchey said.

At least one business was worried about losing its food. Ritchey said the owner of Jasmin brought in a generator to protect its food during the outage.

The power came back on around 10 a.m., but the damage was already done for several businesses.

“I’ve got to plan for it to be an off day,” Ritchey said.

Several patrons were seen waiting outside GoPaks Bazaar at 10:30 a.m., upset about the closing. When the owner finally opened the door, the customers greeted him with a barrage of angry complaints.